Ready or Not
by Bromigo1
Summary: Ben Arnit was just a normal teenager until his life was changed completely by a freak accident and his life turned upside down. Jennifer Wakeman is a teenage, super-powered, robot super hero who doesn't have a care in the world, except for finding a date, that is until both their dimensions are threatened by a dark and powerful force.
1. Chapter 1

It was a warm summer day, the sun was out and there was a slight breezethat blew the grass and the flowers in a calm manner. Ben was playing a game of basketball at the city park with a small group of his friends. Mike, Ben's best friend passed the ball over to Ben, unfortunately he missed the pass and the ball went rolling across the street stopping in front of the bank, next to an armored car.

"Come on, man, that was right to you!" Drew, another one of Ben's friends, said.

"Cool your jets man, it'll be fine. Look, the ball is right across the street, no big." said Mike in Ben's defense.

"Yeah no prob. I'll shoot over across the street and grab the ball and be back before you know it, bromigo." Ben said rather coolly to his group of friends.

Ben walked over to the cross walk and hit the walk button so he could cross the street to retrieve his ball. While he was waiting he noticed three shady figures hanging around the armored car, they were dressed as guards but something about them didn't sit right in Ben's gut. He shook the feeling off thinking that he was obviously mistaken and thought nothing further about it. Finally the light turned red and he was able to cross the street.

On the other side of the street the three "guards" left their post and went across the street. This seemed odd to Ben, considering the precious cargo of money that the car held. Then he noticed something that puzzled him then frightened him when he realized what was going on. All of a sudden, three inches from his young 16 year old face, was the bright flash of copious amounts of C4 which sent the entire truck up in flames along with him and everything in it.

**The Next Universe Over:**

_*Crash Bang Zip*_

The job was almost too easy for a certain metallic super heroin. The giant bat like creature was no match for the super-powered robo-teen. The creature cam in early that morning right before school started, leaving XJ-9, aka Jenny Wakeman, only so much time to dispatch it and get to school before she got detention for being tardy, again.

The creature only stood about 15 feet tall with large crooked fangs, hideous, large spikes protruding from it's back with small red mushrooms growing on it's shoulders. Menacing? Yes. A challenge? No. Jenny was able to take the creature with little difficulty and sent the thing hurdling into space with a super-powered punt with her super-powered robotic foot.

"And stay out!" shouted the blue and silver teen as the monster flew out of earth's orbit. "Why can't those things bother someone else for a change, or at least do it sometime else that doesn't get me detention." Jenny said as she looked at a digital clock that shot from withing her metal chest. "Oh well, she said, "at least it was easy."


	2. That's What Friends are For

_Look at you... do you honestly thing that you can fit in, especially after your little... mishap? You are alone, you neither belong to your beloved human race nor the cold heart of the machine. You do not belong._

Ben woke with a start. He looked around the cold dark room that he now slept in. He wiped the sweat of his brow and unplugged himself from the small generator that recharged his mechanical parts. He got up, turned on the lights and looked at himself in the mirror. It was one year after his accident and it still haunted him in his dreams at night. He smiled at himself, he was a cyborg. This fact might not be merit a smile for most people, but to Ben it was pretty awesome. When he first woke after his accident he was scared but then ecstatic. He couldn't wait to show his friends his new found powers that accompanied his new body. However, his other friends were not as excited as he was, they were more terrified and surprised, except Mike. Mike was the only person outside of his family that accepted the new him.

"Hey, man, I brought us some breakfast tacos. So, let's get to the kitchen and get our salsa on with these little wrapped bundles of sausage and egg deliciousness." Mike said with his mouth watering over those burritos.

"Huh?" Ben replied looking up. When he saw his best friend walking in he smiled.

"Hey, Broseph, what's up?" The smell of the breakfast burrito's reached Ben's nose his mouth began to water. "Bro, why didn't you tell me you brought snackage?!" Ben asked "I'm starving!"

Mike rolled his eyes and gestured for Ben to come out. Ben followed Mike to the kitchen where Ben took an oversized jug of salsa out of the refrigerator. Mike began to beatbox and Ben caught on to where Mike was going so he began to sing:

Ben: When I say burrito, you say salsa

Burrito!

Mike: Salsa!

Ben: Burrito!

Mike: Salsa

Ben and Mike: Sausage, Eggs, then add cheese. Now you have a snack that soon will please!

"What are you two up to?" Ben and Mike looked up to see who was interrupting their burrito song.

"Oh, hey mom." Ben said quizzically. "I thought you were on your way to work." Ben said to his mother. "And I thought you were on your way to school." Ben's mother replied trying to conceal a smile on her face.

"WE'RE LATE!" Ben and Mike shouted to each other.

**Back at Tremorton High**

"Hey, Jenny!" a familiar voice cried out. Jenny turned around and saw her best friend running to catch up to her. "Hey Brad!" she said. "What's up" she asked her out of breath friend.

"Ah nothing much, Jen. Sorry about missing last night's mission, my mom wouldn't let me out of the house with it being the night before the first day of the new school year." "Don't sweat it, Brad. It was just some lame Cluster drone, it was easy, so you didn't miss a whole lot."

"Cool, so you excited about this year?" Brad asked Jenny. "Yeah!" the teen bot replied, respectively, since school was an escape from the repetitive life of fighting crime all the time. Well, that and hanging out at Mesmer's with Brad. "Are you?" she asked.

"You bet. The ladies will be pleased to know that the Bradster grew a whole inch over the summer." "Why would they be pleased to know that?" Jenny asked with a confused look on her face. "Because," Brad replied with a smile on his face, "that means that there is more of the Bradster for the ladies to love." Jenny just rolled her eyes and continued walking amused by her friends self proclaimed status of "ladies man".

Not to much time later did the two friends arrive at the entrance of Tremorton High.

"Still wearing that same old outfit, are we Jennifer?" Jenny turned around to see two faces she was not excited to see, Brit and Tiff. "Yeah, that look is so last year, girlfriend." Tiff chimed in.

"What's wrong with my look. It's not like I can change it." responded Jenny.

"Just ignore them Jen." said Brad. "They're not worth the words." he said as he led Jenny into the school. "Yeah, well, you're not worth the words!" Brit yelled. "The nerve of those two." Tiff said shaking her head.

**Petropolis High**

Ben and Mike ran as fast as they could to the high school. Well, Ben ran as fast as he could while Mike rode on his back. "The first day of school and we're already late." Ben said.

"Yeah, but those burritos were totally worth it, man." "Heck yes they were, bromigo." replied Ben.

"Dude, why didn't you just fly us to school?" Mike inquired his friend. "I mean, as fast as you are, wouldn't it have been even faster if you flew, with you being a cyborg and all?"

"Can't." Ben replied simply. "Your dad still hasn't installed rocket boosters yet, with him spending the last year working on his big project for the upcoming Science Symposium this weekend."

"Ohh." Mike said.

"Mr. Arnit, Mr. Norris!" our two friends heard a man shout. They looked up and saw the glare of none other than Mr. Bradshaw, their first period Science teacher. "Mr. Bradshaw." Mike began to say. "Let me just assure you that Ben and I have a very good reason for being..." "Perhaps you and your freak... uh, I mean _friend_ would like to take a seat so that we may resume with _my_ class." Mike was about to retort about the insult to Ben when Ben stopped him saying "Dude, cool your jets, let's just sit down."

"Okay." Mike said glaring at Mr. Bradshaw. Mike and Ben sat down when Mr. Bradshaw began to speak. "Now, I am pleased to inform you that I will be giving a pop quiz to review what you do, or more likely, don't know."

Complaints began to fill the air as the whole class grumbled and complained about the pop quiz when a voice over the PA announced that Ben was need back at NanTech Labs. "Mr. Arnit." Mr. Bradshaw said. "I believe that you are needed elsewhere, but be aware that I will be giving you a zero on your pop quiz the classwork that we will be doing today in class.

"What!" Ben yelled. "Mr. Bradshaw, that's not fair." "Neither is interrupting my class with something that I am sure is just an excuse to get out of my pop quiz." Ben left the room with steam coming out of his ears.

**Tremorton High**

The first four periods flew by like the wind and Jenny was having a pretty good day, aside from the Crust cousins being there. It was lunch time and Brad and Jenny were talking and laughing all the way down to the cafeteria. "Hey, Jenny, did you hear about Don Prima's tomorrow?" Brad asked his robot friend. "Sure did," replied Jenny. "It would just be a dream come true if I got invited, better yet, if I had a date to go with that would make those Crust cousins cry." Just as she had said this Don Prima came up behind them,

"Ahem, Bradley, I'm sure you've heard about my party tomorrow evening."

"You bet! … uh, I mean, yeah, so?" Brad replied trying not to sound to excited about it. "Yes, well you're invited." Don Prima replied. He began to walk away when Brad stopped him,

"Wait, what about Jenny?" sighing, "Fine, you're invited too, Jenny, was it?"

"Well, now we're both invited, Jen." "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Jenny squealed. "hey, don't sweat it, Jenny, that's what friends are for."


	3. Crimson Red

Ben was on his way to NanTech Labs when he first noticed the sky that day. Sure the sky is hard to miss, but something was different than it was earlier that morning. He saw dark clouds, what he thought were storm clouds, that's when he noticed the real change. The sky was not it's normal blue color, it was now _crimson red_.

Upon seeing this Ben ran the last 12 blocks to NanTech, he hadn't been taught to drive yet and even if he had, his mom and dad had both their cars, even though the worked in the same place. He finally reached the lab and stopped by his Dr. Norris' lab, he was the one who needed to see him. The whole of NanTech was in a state of confusion, a state which frightened Ben. He then saw his mother and walked over to her.

"Mom!" she didn't hear him. "Mom!" he shouted louder. She still did not acknowledge him, she was busy doing something on a large computer monitor with large amounts of data on it, most of which Ben could not decipher and she looked scared and concerned, the type of look when a mother thinks that something happened to her kid when he is out past midnight on a weekend.

"Mom!" he tried again, grabbing her arm as he did so. She looked up with a start. "Ben!" she said. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Mr. Norris." he replied blankly. "Mom, what's going on?" he asked now concerned. Normally when he stopped by the lab everyone was quiet, focused solely on their work. The only time anything exciting happened here was when someone finally made a breakthrough on something, like the time that Dr. Norris finally unlocked the secrets to cybernetic technology, the same kind that now made up much of Ben's body. That kind of excitement was, well, exciting and fun, this was scary, threatening even.

"What do you mean?" his mother asked him, trying to hid the apparent fear on her face, like a mother does when she doesn't want to let her child know that something is wrong for the sake of not scaring their child. "There's nothing wrong." she said trying to force a smile, obviously lying.

"But, mom," Ben said. "There are dark clouds in the sky, the sky is red, everyone in the lab is running around like it's the end of the world." He looked at his mother, trying to hold back tears. "It's not the end of the world, obviously." he said with a chuckle. "Is it?" he asked with an apparent hint of fear in his voice. He didn't receive an answer, instead his mother just walked away.

"Ben." Said a deep, masculine voice. A tall, well built man, not very bulky, but very proportional, except for his large, black fro that covered his head. Ben looked at his best friend's father. "Mr. Norris," Ben said to the man. "What's going on around here?"

"Ben, where's Mike? Where's my son?" Mr. Norris asked with a fatherly concern in his voice. "The school only told us that I was needed."

"NO!" Dr. Norris shouted, scaring Ben. "I told them I needed both of you!" Dr. Norris looked very distraught, and Ben wondered why. "Mr. Norris," he asked again. "What's going on?" Mr. Norris looked at Ben with sad eyes.

"Follow me." Dr. Norris said flatly. Ben followed him down a long corridor, up an elevator, and down a series of more long corridors until they finally reached a large lab. Dr. Norris scanned his hand print, his eye, and even his tongue. He then proceeded to punch in an extremely long pass code in, Ben counted at least fifty digits, but there were more than that. Finally the door to the lab opened. Ben looked around at dozens of gadgets along long counters covered with beakers, circuit boards and tons of robotic parts half finished. Then his eyes rested on a lone figure standing on the other side of the lab, working on something that looked like a large LED flashlight, but obviously wasn't.

"Dad!" Ben yelled running over to his father. "Ben?" his father said looking up from his work. It had been about three days since Ben had seen his father, for he had been up at the lab working on something important, but Ben did not know what. "It's so good to see you." Ben's father said, exhausted. Ben looked at his father, he looked at the bags under his eyes and the sweat that covered his brow. He looked at the messy hair, or what was left of it, on top of his fathers head. At first he didn't know why his dad was staying at the lab working day and night, he didn't thing that some Symposium was worth so much trouble, but he began to fear that was not the reason his dad was working so hard.

"Dad, what's going on?" Ben asked yet again, hoping it was the last time he would have to ask that question. "Three days ago we received a message." Dr. Norris interjected. "A message? Ben asked confused. " A message from who?"

"A message from a force so evil, so diabolical and so powerful that it threatens the very existence of our world, maybe even our entire galaxy." Ben's father replied. Ben looked at his father with shock and terror on his face. "W-W-What do you..." he was cut off when all of a sudden **BOOOOOOM **a large explosion that shook the entire building went of somewhere in the building. Alarms went off everywhere and the sprinkler systems went off. Ben heard a computerized voice begin to speak. "Warning. Sector E, sub-sector C has been destroyed. All survivors please exit." Ben looked up at his father, who had just gotten up and was running out of the lab. Ben suddenly realized what had inspired his father to get up the way he did. "Mom!" He said, or at least he though he did, at the moment he couldn't think clearly. He got up and ran after his dad, Dr. Norris right behind him. Ben was running as fast as he could and passed his dad. He was about to get on the elevator when the doors open and he saw a familiar face, covered with fear.

"Mike!?" Dr. Norris shouted. "What are you doing here?!" Earlier he had wanted his son here with him, but now he thought that it might be too dangerous. **BOOOOOOM **

Another explosion went off, this one even larger than before. The whole building began to twist and turn. The four of them ran down to where the first explosion had taken place. Ben and Mr. Arnit began to search frantically for the missing Mrs. Arnit, Ben hoping beyond all hope that his mother had gotten out of there before the explosion off, it was unlikely since almost the entire sector had been blown away. The building was still twisting and creaking, even more violently than before and Ben now saw why. Through the hulking whole in the side of building revealed something that looked like a black hole in the sky sucking everything into it.

"Ben!" shouted his Father. Ben ran over to his dad trying to keep balance on the swiveling floor of the rocking building. Ben reached them and looked down with a sheer look of sorrow mixed with terror on his now ashen face. He looked at the face of his mother, or what was left of. He wanted to cry but couldn't, for the air was trapped in lungs. **SNAP **

All of a sudden the entire building jerked and began to rise. They were headed for the black hole. Ben looked at his father holding his maimed mother, he looked over at his best friend and his father holding each other closely crying and saying their good byes. He looked again at his father holding up the strange LED flashlight like contraption, aiming directly at him.

"I lost your mother, my best friend, and now my own life. I allow you to die like the rest of us, son." his father said chocking on sobs and with tears filling his eyes. "Find a woman by the name of Nora Wakeman."

"Dad! Wai..."

All of a sudden everything disappeared in a bright bluish-white flash of light.


	4. In the Belly of the Beast

Back at Tremorton High the whole school was abuzz about Don Prima's party, or at least those who were invited.

"Hey, Jenny, how's the date hunt going for ya. Did you find the perfect date that would make the 'Crust Cousins cry'?" Brad asked his friend Jenny.

"No, Brad." A crestfallen Jenny answered. "Every guy avoids me and if I show up to that party without a date, I'll be the laughing stock of the whole school. Brad, I don't know what I'm going to do!" Jenny shouted into her friends ear. Brad looked surprised than returned to his normal, nonchalant state and smiled.

"Calm down, Jenny. If anybody knows about getting a date, it's the Bradster." Brad said with his usual air of confidence. "I'll help you find a date." he said. "Really, Brad?" Jenny asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Sure, don't sweat it."

Just as he had finished saying this a certain nerd popped his head out of the trash can. "Hey, Jenny." he said causing both Brad and Jenny to jump in surprise. "Sheldon?" Brad asked with one eyebrow cocked. "What are you doing in the garbage?"

"Never mind that." Sheldon replied diverting his eyes onto Jenny. "So, uh, Jenny. I heard that you don't have a date for Don Prima's party..." "No, Sheldon." Jenny replied flatly. "But you don't even know what I was going to ask." Sheldon replied. Jenny just looked at him and said. "You were going to ask me to be your date." Sheldon looked away and said quietly, "Okay, so you did know what I was going to ask you." She just looked down at the nerd down in the garbage, shook her head, and walked away.

"Smooth, Shel." Brad said to Sheldon. "Maybe next time, don't try hiding in the garbage."

"Yeah, guess it is kind of a turn off." Sheldon said meekly. "Yeah" Brad said and turned around to catch up to Jenny. "Yo, Jenny, wait up." Sheldon just looked at the two walking away, envying the time that Brad got to spend with Jenny while he spent his stalking her in the garbage.

_Ben woke up, his cybernetic optical lagging behind his real, organic eye. Everything was fuzzy at first in his robotic eye, but eventually everything cleared up. He looked up at the blue sky. _Oh, good, it was all just a dream_. He thought to himself. It took him a moment to realize that he was outside and not in his room. He got up and looked around, this place didn't look anything like Petropolis or anyplace near Petropolis. He checked the GPS coordinates on a built in GPS on his right arm. _That's odd_. He thought to himself. The coordinates say that I should be right in NanTech Labs, yet this place wasn't the lab, he wasn't even a building. He looked around some more until he saw a town. He made his way as quickly as possible over to the town. He looked at a sign that said, _Welcome to Tremorton._

_ "Oh, it's hopeless Brad. I'm never going to get a date to Don Prima's party."

"It's all good, Jen." Brad said as he struck out, yet again, with a girl he was attempting to lay it smooth on. "If all else fails we can go together, you know, as friends." Brad said, trying to raise his friends spirits, or whatever it is that robots have.

"Yeah I guess so." Jenny replied, sounding defeated.

All of sudden a large noise was heard and an explosion somewhere near Mesmer's caught the two friends attention. "Just my luck." Jenny said. "I'm already having enough trouble finding a date, and now some monster or alien is attacking. Oh well, at least it will let me take my mind of things." Jenny sighed.

_ Ben was making his way to a clothing shop, although technically he didn't need clothes, he still felt more comfortable in pants as if it were habit for him to wear them and he wanted to get something that would hide his robotic parts. The people of Petropolis were accustomed to the way he looked, and the still though he was freaky, no telling how people who didn't know him would react. He had just put the clothes on when he heard the explosion across town.

_ Jenny flew to the site of the explosion and saw a giant robot attacking the town, not doubt a cluster drone, a big cluster drone that is.

"When will you cluster learn, I am never going to join you!" Jenny shouted as she fired a laser at the giant mechanical beast that was terrorizing Tremorton. She had expected the beast to go down in hit, but when she looked she did a double take, the robot wasn't even scratched.

"Okay, so you're not going to go down so easily." Jenny said. "But I can still kick your giant metal butt." she said as she turned her hand into a fist and hit her foe, causing it to fall over. The robot got back up and began to fire missiles at Jenny. Jenny bobbed and weaved, dodging most of the missiles but a couple of them made contact with her. Jenny went flying into the ground. She got up and shook it off, flying right back to the fight.

_ Ben ran all the way across town, it was at times like these that he wished that he had gotten Dr. Norris to install rocket boosters on him. At the thought of that name he became sad as he thought about all that he had seen. His world was being destroyed. His mother was dead, he saw her, laying there in the arms of his father. He remembered Mike and Dr. Norris and his dad as the were flying to a black hole in a red sky. How was that possible, he was looking at the sky, it was blue and the world certainly didn't look destroyed. He didn't have time to think about it long because he suddenly heard a large crash as a cloud of dust erupted from the ground. He looked as a blue and white robot got up and shook of the impact. It flew back to the giant robot that it was fighting. He then saw a large silver robot fly in with a smoke girl. They were helping the blue and white robot fight the giant robot attacking the city.

_ "Hey Jen... ah, I mean. Hello XJ-9." said the Silver Shell. "Oh, hey Silver Shell. I probably won't need your help. This cluster drone is going down." Jenny said to the Silver Shell, perhaps being a bit to sure of herself. "Don't worry, Jenny, we should have this thing taken care of in no time." a voice said, Jenny turning around to see Misty.

"Hey, Misty, how much are you charging to take this thing out." Jenny asked Misty. Misty just smiled at her saying, "A girl's got to make a living, Jenny." As they were saying this the giant mechazoid monster swept one it's large metal hands down towards the three. Jenny and Misty got out of the way, but the Silver Shell was smacked out of the air onto the ground leaving a rather large crater. The Silver Shell got up, though Sheldon was a little dizzy inside.

Jenny and Misty proceeded to attack the robot. Jenny transformed her hand into a giant hammer and whacked the bot across the face sending it stumbling backwards, while Misty and the Silver Shell attacked one of the robot's legs sending it into a face-plant on the ground. The robot stayed there for a second, leading the three heroes to believe that the thing was defeated.

"See, easy as..." Jenny began to say to the other two, that was before she heard grinding of gears and the behemoth robot stood back up. It's eyes were glowing red and it stared the two down. The robot was designed to adapt to present battle conditions that it was in and modify itself to it's enemy. The robot was surveying the area and the three that stood before it. It looked around and saw a woman standing next to a stroller, and in the stroller was a small child, an infant. The robot smiled a robot smile, which confused Jenny, Misty, and the Silver Shell.

"What's it smiling for?" Misty inquired

Jenny just shrugged, "Beats me." she said

"He must realize he is defeated!" exclaimed the Silver Shell.

The robot then reached down, took up the infant, and threw it into it's gargantuan metal mouth and swallowed it. Jenny and Misty stared at the giant robot in shock. The Silver Shell fainted and fell to the ground. "Eww... that is so gross." Said Brad from down below with a few people who were recording the scene with their fancy cell phones. The robot laughed a robotic laugh.

_ Ben was standing down on the ground in a gray hoodie, black cargo pants, and black and purple Nike's. He was watching the scene unfold, completely captivated by the three heroes as they fought the giant metal monster. "Wow..." he said to himself. "This is so cool. I mean, despite the town being attacked by a giant killer robot, but still." The large silver did not impress him too much, he reminded him of a lot of the robots he saw back in his own dimension, which Ben was not yet aware that he was in another dimension. What really impressed him was the blue and white robot and the smoke girl. He watched in amazement as the blue and white robot changed her hand into a giant hammer and smack the living daylights out of the giant robot and was astounded when the smoke girl slammed the robot's leg, causing it to topple over. The silver one did something, but Ben didn't really notice exactly what. "Whoa!" he said to himself, "These guys are awesome." He was about to cheer when the robot was knocked down, but didn't when he saw that it got back up. Then he saw the robot swallow the baby.

Ben just stared with his jaw hung open, a look of horror on his face.

"Did you just eat the baby?!" he cried out towards the machine. Many people who were brave or stupid enough to record the even on their phones turned to look at him. The three heroes also turned around to look at who said it. When they looked down, they saw a figure standing in the middle of the street, but were unable to see who it was because of the hood he wore casting a shadow on his face.

"Bro! Eating. Babies. Is. Not. Cool!" He yelled as he charged at the beast and incredible speed. He jumped using his enhanced strength from his robotic enhancements and landed on the face of the giant robot, causing it to take a few steps backwards.

Jenny, Misty, and the Silver Shell just stared, amazed at what they were seeing.

Ben grabbed both the jaws of the robot and forced them open, using his super strength. "Open up you stupid hung of scrap metal!" He yelled at the metal monster. When he opened the monster's mouth he jumped inside of it.

The crowd down below just stared, as did the three super heroes. The monster burped and smiled at the three heroes and was advancing to make an attack. The three of them braced themselves and prepared to battle when all of a sudden the giant robot monster stopped dead in it's tracks. Something had begun to bounce around in the belly of the beast, causing apparent discomfort to the giant robot. Smoke began to come out of it's nostrils and fire shout out of it's mouth. Just then it's belly burst open, flames spewed out and something shout out of it, landing about 20 feet away from the robot.

_ The last scene of this chapter was mostly taken from one of my favorite episodes of Ben 10: Alien Force. To avoid an lawsuits, I am putting this here for you all to see. The episode is The Con of Rath.


	5. Crash and Burn

Ben began to wonder what he was doing when he jumped down the throat of the giant metal beast. He didn't know why he felt he needed to do this so badly, but he did know one thing, he had to get that baby. As he was falling the sound someone crying got louder and louder. _The baby._ He thought. He looked down and saw the baby dangling on a loose wire so he stopped by sticking out his arms and legs and performed the splits with his hands and feet pressed against either side of the throat, good thing too because down below was a giant pit of fire, a furnace that would incinerate the both, what was left of his organic body and the whole baby. When he grabbed the baby he noticed that the baby was not dangling on a loose wire, but rather a busted fuel line. Ben had grabbed the baby too quickly, causing the fuel line to fall spilling oil into the fire of the furnace. At first everything was okay.

"Shhh... shhh...shhh..." Ben said trying to calm the baby's crying. "Who's a good baby, who's a good little baby." he said to the baby in a baby voice. "Yeah, that's good. Stop cr...AAAAHHHHH!" the fuel from the fuel line began to cause the fire from the incinerator below to shoot up at them. Ben had to get out of there quickly if he wanted to save the baby. He dropped down and grabbed on the loose fuel line and swung himself over the wall of the internal stomach of the robot. His swinging on the busted fuel line caused more of the oil to leak into different parts of the incinerator causing him to jump around from wall to wall to avoid getting him and the baby hit. The whole while that this was going the baby was crying. Ben eventually had enough of this and landing on the back wall of the stomach used all of his leg strength to jump over to the other side. Midway there he flipped himself over so that he was leg first flying towards the way.

Flying with such velocity when he hit the wall, he and the baby blasted through the wall with flames erupting up onto them as they were exiting. The result was a fireball looking projectile flying out of the robot and landing a distance from the robot.

The onlookers stared where the strange projectile had landed with awe. A cloud of dust and smoke obstructed their view of it, luckily some of them got the whole thing on video. Jenny, Misty and the Silver Shell flew over to where the landing site was. The still were not able to discern who or what was in the cloud of dust and smoke.

Ben looked up, he could tell that he got out of there safely and was relieved, suddenly he remembered the baby, it had been crying. Scared he looked down and saw that the baby's physical body was unharmed, however he could not tell if was alive. He put the baby's chest up to his ear, he heard a heartbeat. The baby was alive, relieved he began CPR. He sucked some of the smoke around the baby into his mouth and blew it out, he then proceeded to blow air into the baby's small lungs. The baby began to cry.

"That's a good. Keep crying little bro-dude." Ben looked down and realized that his hoodie had been burned off by the flames. As the smoke began to clear he realized that people would see him and be scared, so he set the baby down and ran off, unaware that someone had captured his silhouette on camera.

_Jenny, Misty and Silver Shell landed next to the cloud of smoke. The smoke cleared away and they and the rest of the people there were anxious to see who or what had flown out. When it cleared all they could see was a small infant baby laying on the street crying. The mother of the baby ran and embraced the small child and tried to calm the baby. The rest of the people wondered about the strange figure that had jumped into the beast and what had happened to him.

"What happened to the other dude?" one bystander asked

"What dude?" one woman asked.

"The one that jumped in after the baby, chuckle head." said the first

"Maybe he burned up." said another

Jenny, Misty, and Silver Shell just looked at each other with curiosity in their eyes.

"I'm gonna blow this popsicle stand." Misty said.

"Yes, I too must be going." the Silver Shell

Jenny simply nodded, she was still thinking. As the other two flew off she simply said to herself. "That baby didn't fly out of there on it's own."


	6. Consider Yourself Warned

"Who do you think that guy was?" Brad asked Jenny as they were walking to Don Prim's party that night.

"I don't know." replied Jenny. "We could have used his help sooner." she said lastly, then she as quiet. "Yeah," said Brad. "I wonder why he waited for that baby to be eaten before joining the fight." Brad said quizzically. "Beats me." said Jenny.

"Stupid robot." Jenny said angrily. "Because of that thing I didn't get to find a date for the party." Jenny said, what a bummer. "Yeah, too bad." Brad said. "Well, don't sweat it Jen." Brad said, there's always next time.

As Jenny and Brad walked up to Don Prima's house they stopped suddenly, both with confused looks on their faces. Everyone at the party were dressed in gray hoodies, black cargo pants, and black shoes, all of different brand names.

"Why is everyone dressed like that?" Brad asked. "Beats me." Jenny replied.

"I can answer that question for you." replied a male voice. Jenny and Brad turned around to see Don Prima, who was dressed in the same manner as everyone else. Prima flipped on a large television that was in an outdoor pavilion and a news program showed up.

On the television was Dana Sherald, news caster. Dana was talking about the incident earlier that day:

" On the scene was resident hero XJ-9, otherwise known as Jennifer Wakeman, super-powered robot and global defense unit, and of course attendee of our very own Tremorton High. Along with this bionic super hero was hero for hire, Misty and the Silver Shell. Also on the scene was a surprise appearance, we don't know much about this mysterious stranger who disappeared after he rescued local resident Diana Twain's infant child from the belly of the beast. We do, however, have many images of this hooded figure standing in a crowd of bystanders before he made his dramatic entrance.

The newscast proceeded to show many images depicting what appeared to be a man wearing a gray hoodie, black cargo pants.

"This strange figure mysteriously disappeared after he rescued a baby from withing the giant robot monster that attacked our beloved town just earlier today, many speculate that he was burned up as he was rescuing the child. There is one, however, who says that he has proof that this mystery hero survived and is still out there.

Murmuring arose between the party guest when they heard this. Jenny and Brad kept watching when suddenly the looked at each other in surprise and said simultaneously, "Tuck?!"

Dana Sherald continued speaking. "Please welcome our special guest, Tucker Carbunkle."

"Thank you, Dana." Tuck said. "As we all know there are many dangers out there. Dangers that are made by man, such as crazy killer robots, dangers that are made by aliens, such as even crazier killer robots and giant slime monsters that consume everything that they touch! And then of course dangers that are aliens themselves. I believe that the 'Hooded Stranger'..."

"Hooded Stranger'" Dana asked Tuck puzzled.

"Yes, 'Hooded Stranger'." Tuck replied, indignant at the fact that he had just been interrupted. "Now, as I was saying. I believe that the 'Hooded Stranger' is indeed an alien. An alien that is here to suck out our brains and harvest our organs so he can make a quick buck by selling them to the highest bidder on the alien black market!" Tuck said, now almost shouting.

"An alien?" Dana asked Tuck doubtfully. "Why, then, do you think he rescued that baby from the giant robot earlier today.?"

"Oh, that? That's easy." Tuck said. "He simply wants us to get him to trust him so that we let our guards down and our brains and our organs are easier to harvest." Tuck replied matter-of-factually. "He also just wanted to sell it to some space zoo or something."

"Okay..." replied Dana. "Mr. Carbunkle, you said you have proof that the 'Hooded Stranger' is still out there, while many presume that he burned up.

"Yes." Tucker replied. "I have him on video inside of the smoke cloud after he supposedly rescued the baby from the giant robot. I captured it on my brother's brand new cell phone." Tuck said with a smug grin.

"That's where it was." Brad said disgruntled. "He told me he didn't have it." said Brad as he crossed his arms. Jenny just rolled her eyes and shook her head as she continued to watch the television.

A video was being played in which there was a cloud of smoke and dust. At first that's all that seemed to be in the video when suddenly you saw a silhouette of a figure hunched over a smaller figure. Then there was crying, it appeared as though the figure in the smoke was saying something but it was not audible. All of a sudden the figure got up and darted out of the cloud as it cleared.

"And there you have it folks." Dana said to the camera. "The 'Hooded Stranger is still out there somewhere. The question remains: What is he? Where did he come from? Is here to help or is he here to suck out our brains and harvest our organs. Stay tuned. We'll keep you updated. Goodnight."

"So... you're telling me that everybody is dressed as someone they never heard of and don't know if he isn't a blood thirsty alien after our brains and organs." Brad asked.

"It's not our fault that some people don't know fashion." said an all too familiar voice. The two turned around to see none other than Brit and Tiff.

"You guys too?" Jenny asked shocked.

"Yes, we have to keep up with the times. Gray hoodies and black cargo's are what is in, and lets be honest, everything looks good on us." Brit said.

"Yeah, at least we don't wear the same thing everyday." Tiff added.

Before Jenny was allowed to dignify that with an answer a deep, menacing voice boomed, saying. "Where is the one you call XJ-9?"

Jenny looked up expecting to see Cluster goons. But, to her surprise what she saw was organic and not mechanical. The creature was menacing. It had pale gray skin, large tusk like teeth, long green hair and a green beard neatly trimmed and tied, and it sported a black and green cloak and carried a large double bladed ax. It was descending on a rather large hover board.

"What do you want?" Jenny shouted as she charged at him ready to attack.

"Merely the destruction of your world." The creature replied.

"Well, you can't have it!" Jenny replied as she swung her fist at the creature. The creature stuck out his ax and shot out a blast of green energy stopping Jenny in her tracks.

"I can't move." Jenny said. "You let me go, or you'll be sorry." She shouted at the strange creature.

"I don't want to fight you. At least, not yet." The creature replied. "As the strongest on your planet, we have come to warn you. Consider yourself warned." The creature said as he let grinned insidiously and flew out of sight on his hover craft.


	7. What's XJ-9

Ben was sitting in a tree, enjoying the gentle breeze that the calm, quiet night brought him. He was drifting off to sleep when he heard a small voice. _Ben Arnit._ The voice said. Ben looked around trying to discern where the voice was coming from. _Ben Arnit!_ The voice said again, sounding a little annoyed. Ben realized that there were coming from inside his head. _Oh great,_ he thought to himself. _I'm going crazy._ All of sudden Ben fell out of the tree. All he could see was what looked like a long tunnel of strange symbols. Some of the symbols looked like what he saw in his dad's lab. _Dad._ He thought. It had been a while since he's seen his father, he was confused as to where he was and why he couldn't seem to find his city, Petropolis, on any map that he looked at since he woke up. All of a sudden he was alone. Everything was quiet, too quiet, so quiet you started to become scared. Then he heard a high, scratchy voice. "Ben Arnit." The voice said. Ben turned around. "AGGHHHAH." Ben screamed as he stumbled backwards falling into a white chair that had not been there a moment ago. Ben was staring at a staring at a tall, white creature with a white robe on and a tall white hat. He was holding some sort of white pad in his long, skinny fingers.

"Y-Y-Y-Your a.. a..a..an..." he stuttered.

"My name is Tate"the strange looking creature said.

"Alien." Ben finally got out.

"An Alien?" Tate asked indignant. "Why I'm no such thing." Tate stated.

Ben just stared at Tate with fear, confusion, and amazement trying to process what he was seeing. He was alone in a large empty white room, with a strange, white creature. Finally he said something.

"This is so cool!" Ben shouted.

"I beg your pardon?" Tate said.

"I'm standing here with a real live alien, probable on the mother ship... you're not going to probe me are you?" Ben asked Tate, beginning to show a little concern on his face. "Because if you are, that's your thing and I won't judge you, but you might want to get a different subject because I have a metal butt and it won't be any good for probing, not that I would want you to even if I didn't have a metal butt..."

Tate just stared in a state of confusion and frustration as Ben kept rambling on about brain sucking and probing until finally, "Will you just shut up!"

Ben looked up surprised and a little hurt. He sat down and was quiet as the "alien" began to speak.

"My name is Tate. I am no 'alien', I am an extra-dimensional being.."

"Extra-dimensional?" Ben asked. "You mean, like, from another dimension? I thought that stuff was just theory."

"Tate looked at him, one eye twitching. He was obviously becoming annoyed by the boy's constant blathering. "What do you mean theory. You should know better than anyone else, halfling, you traveled through to another dimension yourself!"

Ben looked at him, confused to what he what Tate was telling him. Suddenly, he realized something. If he had traveled to a different dimension, then everything that happened to his parents, his best friend, his only friend, everything that happened to his world, it was not all just a dream. Tate, as if he was reading his mind, said to him:

"If you don't want what has happened to your earth to happen to the earth that you now preside on, you will listen to every word that I say." Ben nodded, signaling that he understood.

"Good." Tate said. "We have a job for you." Ben looked confused.

"A job?" he asked. Tate just stared at him, Ben became quiet again.

"A job." Tate said flatly. "The Kreeng are wanting to destroy every dimension in our multi-verse. He figures that if he can't live in them, no one can. We figure that this dimension is only one that we can stop him in." Tate said. Ben was still confused, he didn't understand anything that Tate was saying. "Your job is to protect the one thing that can stand a chance against the Kreeng in this dimension." State said. Ben waited for him to say more, he didn't.

"Wait!" Ben said. "What exactly am I protecting... and do I get paid?"

Tate stared at him, thinking. "What do you want?" he asked.

Ben answered him quickly. "I want my home back." Tate stared at him. "That's impossible, your home is already destroyed, there is no way to bring it back. Ben grew sad, he looked down. Tate then asked, "is there anything else you want?" Ben pondered on this thought for a moment, then he said:

"I want _a_ home."

Tate just looked at Ben like he was crazy.

"Are you crazy?" Tate asked him.

"It's possible." Ben replied.

"How do you expect us to do that?" Tate asked exasperated.

"I don't know! Your the extra-dimensional being who brought me here to... this place. You're the one who told me to protect... uh... that thing that I"m supposed to protect... what am I protecting exactly?"

Tate sighed, he thought that it was obvious what Ben was supposed to be protecting. "You are protecting the earth's, which you now preside, Global Response Unit, the one that the earthlings call XJ-9."

Brad and Jenny were walking home from Don Prima's party.

"That party was totally rad." Brad said.

"Yeah, even if all anybody talked about was that 'Hooded Stranger'." Jenny replied. "I mean, it's not like I didn't help taking down that giant robot." Jenny huffed.

"Somebody seems a bit Jealous." Brad teased in a singsong voice, his face adorning his usual friendly smile.

"I"m not jealous!" Jenny defended. "I"m just saying it would be nice to have a little recognit..." Jenny was about to say but didn't finish because she tripped over somebody laying in the middle of the sidewalk. She looked down and saw someone wearing a gray hoodie, black cargos, and black and purple Nikes.

"Great." She said. "Even the hobos are dressing up like that 'Hooded Stranger'."

_ "XJ-9!" Ben yelled pressing his hands against his face, his mouth opened wide, and his eyes even wider. "What the heck is an 'XJ-9'?" he asked looking more confused than before.

"You are to protect it all costs, but under no circumstances should you allow XJ-9 to come in contact with you."

"Why not?" he asked. But before he could get an answer he seemed to have fallen through the floor. He woke up in the middle of a sidewalk, under the tree that he had been sitting in previously. A squirrel was trying to store nuts in his mouth, but he scared it off. He spit out the nuts and asked himself, rubbing his head, _could this night get any weirder... and what the heck is an XJ-9?_


	8. Release the Mechadon!

In this chapter we will be experiencing the story from a new characters point of view. Enjoy.

In a dark dimension a foul entity waits chained. He watches as his heralds go throughout the dimensions preparing them for his consumption. He curses those who put him there, in this prison, this dark and terrible poisoned, chained like an animal!He smiles to himself knowing that one of the beings who put him in this prison has been destroyed. Yet he remains unsatisfied. He must destroy every dimension in this multi-verse to obtain the power that he needs, the power for something far more insidious than even his own forces realize. His time in this accursed prison has driven him beyond the point of being merely mad (as in insane). He wanted the power from the dimensions that he consumed, he _needed it_. He _loved _it. He knew only two things, revenge and recompense for the wrongs committed against him.

He watched in glee as he saw that his next meal's strongest hero wasn't even a match for his herald. _This was just going to be too easy_ he though to himself. He lusted after the power, he thought of nothing else. His time was coming. Each dimension of this mutli-verse were only an obstacle towards his ultimate goal, yet at the same time they were his stepping stones.

He watched the robot girl. _Pathetic._ He thought. _Her world, her entire universe is about to be destroyed, and all she cares about is whether or not she fits in with a species as weak as the humans. I sent my herald because I thought she might be a problem. As it turns out, it seems as though there was no need. Your world, the power that comes with it, will be mine all to soon... XJ-9. You are a mere obstacle in my way. Aside from the power that your universe will give me, there is a more personal reason that I have chosen you world as one of the first._ His gaze was diverted from the window that the the robot girl andsome human adolescent to a window that showed a small, elderly woman working in her lab. To anybody else that looked at she might not seem like a threat, but this entity knew better, she had helped to put him here, she and her old colleague. He had already gotten revenge on the other, now it was her turn to feel is wrath as he destroyed her entire universe.

_Recompense... recompense is what I desire. I will have my revenge on you yet for putting me in this accursed prison... Nora Wakeman._

"Master!" a deep, male voice said. The being turned around to see his herald.

"Khor." he said. "What is it you wish to speak to me about." he inquired

"The robot girl. The one they call XJ-9." Khor answered his master.

"What about her? She does not appear to be a threat. She is a mere nuisance that I will consume along with the rest of her universe." he said to Khor.

"Yes, master, but if she does pose a threat. Would it not be wiser to eliminate her first?"

"What do you mean?" he asked furiously. "Even in my current state I am too powerful for her defeat alone!" he bellowed. Khor fell back in fear.

"Yes master, but I fear the rest of the heralds may not be." Khor said quickly, hoping to avoid the rath of his master.

He calmed down and pondered the thought for a moment. "Hmm... perhaps your are right." he said at last. Khor sighed in relief. "Send out the Mechadons." Khor smiled a nasty smiled as he activate a large, black, mechanical titan that had strange, orange, glowing symbols.

"Go and destroy the one they call XJ-9!"


	9. When Mechadon's Attack

"Brad! Brad! Hurry up Brad?" an impatient boy yelled. "We have to get to the mall before they're all sold out!"

"Okay, okay. Calm down Tuck." Brad replied to his little brother, who was bursting at the seams with excitement. "Let's just run next door and get Jenny. You know, see if she wants to come with."

"Okay, but hurry it up!" said an over excited tuck.

Brand and Tuck proceeded to walk next door to their friend Jenny's house. Brad knocked on the door and waited. Five minutes passed and Tuck was getting restless. Brad knocked again, louder this time. This time the door swung open.

"AGGGGGHHHHHAHAHHHHA!" Brad screamed. A strange creature had answered the door. It had a bulbous head with large googly eyes and.. oh wait... it was just Mrs. Wakeman. Brad stared down at the small woman with one of his eyebrows cocked in confusion. She was wearing some sort of helmet with strange looking visors on it. Attention was diverted from her when they realized that Tuck was still screaming.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Tuck, calm down, it's just Mrs. Wakeman." Brad reassured his brother. Tuck stopped for a moment and stared blankly at Mrs. Wakeman for a few seconds before proceeding to scream again.

"AGGGGGGGGHHHHH AGGGGGGGGHHHHH AHH AHH AHH AGGGGGGGGHH!" Brad looked down at his brother with an annoyed expression on his face, as did Mrs. Wakeman. "You done?" Brad asked when Tuck finally took a break from his screaming.

"Almost." Tuck replied to his older brother. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH AHHH AHHH AH!" Tuck finally stopped screaming. "Okay," he said. "Now I'm done." Jenny, who had heard the screaming from upstairs in her room came down as fast as she could.

"Mom! Are you okay?" Jenny asked her mother with a tone of concern in her voice.

"Yes." Mrs. Wakeman replied to her robot daughter. "You have visitors." It was then that Jenny noticed Brad and Tuck standing in the doorway of her house.

"Hey you guys." Jenny said brightening up. Tuck had returned to his excited state and was jumping up and down. "What's wrong with Tuck?" Jenny asked.

"Nothing serious." replied Brad, which shocked Tuck.

"Nothing serious? Brad have you gone mad?" He questioned his brother but then turned to face Jenny. "It's only the ultimate gaming experience ever created by man. It has HD graphics, the greatest first person shooter ever created..." Tuck continued to ramble on about how great the game was when Jenny looked up at Brad with and expression of confusion on her face.

"Galaxy Wars 3 just came out." Brad said, clarifying things for Jenny. "Anyway, we just stopped by to see if you wanted to drop by the mall with us to get the game for this little psycho." he said gesturing towards his brother.

"Sure, Brad, of course I'll go!" Jenny replied. She would never admit it, but she would do just about anything for Brad. After all, he was her best friend and the first one to accept her for her, and she felt a slight attraction towards him that she couldn't quite explain. It was barely noticeable to her, but at the same time all to apparent.

All the way on the other side of town a certain Mechadon robot had just phased into town and started towards the direction of the Wakeman residence. THUD THUD THUD the streets shook as the rather large automaton made it's way through town. Ben, who had been sleeping on a park bench was awoken by the small tremors.

_An earthquake?_ He thought to himself. _No. It certainly didn't feel like an earthquake._ Suddenly the tremors got larger and larger as the Mechadon made it's way closer and closer. Before he knew it he was a large black and orange robot walking by. As it made its way past him a synthesized voice spoke.

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9."

_XJ-9? Why does that sound so familiar?_ He pondered to himself. Suddenly he remembered, he was supposed to protect XJ-9, whatever that was.

"Yo, big guy!" Ben said as he jumped in the path of the giant automaton. "What'cha up too?" he inquired the large robot.

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9" the synthesized voice of the drone replied. "Oh, so you want to destroy the one known as XJ-9? What a coincidence, because I'm supposed to be protecting the one known as XJ-9." He said to the robot. _Of course, it would be easier if I knew what an XJ-9 was._ Ben thought to himself. The Mechadon drone seemed to have ignored him because it walked past him, completely engrossed by it's prime directive.

"Oh no you don't!" Ben shouted as he ran after the robot, grabbing one of it's legs and pulling it forward, sending the robot off balance and onto the ground. The Mechadon got right back up and continued forward stating:

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9."

"Man, I wish I was as focused as you when I was in school?" Ben said as he swung his robotic arm upward in a uppercut, landing a direct hit along the robot's lower jaw. This sent the robot stumbling back a few steps and certainly got it's attention. The robot walked up to Ben, a towering 12 foot tall titan of metal. Ben looked up thinking to himself:

_Ah crud._

The robot mimicked the move performed by Ben and uppercut him right in his lower jaw. This sent Ben flying back about a hundred yards. Ben sat up a little dizzy. He looked forward and saw the robot walking towards him. It got closer and closer until it finally passed him stating the same thing it had been saying. Ben grabbed the robot trying to drag the robot backwards, the Mechadon continued forwards as it kept saying the same repetitive phrase:

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ9."

"Not one for small talk are ya." Ben stated as he continued to pull back on the metal behemoth, unfortunately he pulled to hard bringing the giant bot right down on top of himself. The Mechadon got up and continued to move forward stating the same thing as before. Ben got up, jumped high into the air, and brought himself down with as much force as he could on the back of the Mechadon. The robot got up slowly, turned to face Ben and said:

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9."

"Directive this!" Ben shouted as he ran full speed at the Mechadon and brought his fist down right on top of the Mechadon's face. The Mechadon fell stumbled backwards and fell. It got back up and proceeded to walk slowly over to Ben. Ben jumped at the Mechadon, hoping to land a good punch, but the Mechadon beat him to the, well, punch. As stupid as the robot seemed to be it was strong and the force of the blow sent Ben rocketing back.

Nora Wakeman was walking down the street, she had just went to the Radio Shack to get some supplies when she noticed the people around were screaming and running in the opposite direction as her. She looked forward and shaded her eyes, to nearly have a heart attack when something hit the ground hard beside her. Ben stood up and waited as the Mechadon advanced forward. Nora Wakeman saw the tall, sleek figure of the robot walking towards them and she immediately recognized it.

"Oh no!" she said quietly to herself. "It can't be."

Ben stood up next to Mrs. Wakeman as the robot kept advancing

"I must warn XJ-9." Mrs. Wakeman said aloud.

"XJ-9! You know what XJ..." CRACK

The Mechadon brought it's arm down on top of Ben and was about to proceed when Mrs. Wakeman hit the robot, not doing much, but it did get the Mechadon's attention. Seeing Mrs. Wakeman as a hostile, the Mechadon raised it's fist to deliver a similar blow that Mrs. Wakeman did. Mrs. Wakeman prepared to avoid the blow. Ben got up just in time to see the Mechadon raising it's fist.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Ben. "No crazy killer robot is going to hurt any little old lady on my watch!" Ben said as he jumped and grabbed hold of the Mechadon's arm. "Who are you calling a little old lady?" Mrs. Wakeman asked indignantly."I'm as fresh as a chicken!" she stated. Ben wasn't paying attention. Ben wasn't paying attention and he proceeded to put lay his body across the upper arm of the Mechadon, wrapping his arms around it and basing his feet on the shoulder of the Mechadon. Straining and using all of his body strength the wires attaching the arm to the torso of the Mechadon began to tear

"AARRGHHH EEEEYYYAHHH!" Ben let out his final and loudest grunt as the arm came tearing off of the Mechadon's torso.

"ERROR. ERROR. STRUCTURAL DAMAGE DETECTED. ERROR." the synthesized robotic voice said. "Must continue with directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9. ERROR." the robot began to advance past Mrs. Wakeman. Ben stood up, feeling low on energy.

"Hey, junk-heap!" he shouted as he picked up the Mechadon's arm. The Mechadon continued to walk, not seeing that a hooded figure had just jumped at him holding it's very own arm and:

WHAM!

Ben brought the Mechadon's arm down right on it's head, causing it to fly off it's body and on to the ground next to Mrs. Wakeman, who had been hiding behind a tree. The large body fell forward and powered down.

"ERROR. Structural damage detec...te...d." The Mechadon head said before powering down. Ben sat down, out of breath. Out of breath, Ben hadn't been out of breath in over a year, with his cyborg body it didn't happen often. _Whoever made that robot._ He thought to himself. _Sure knew what they were doing. That thing was tough._ He thought to himself as he tapped the metal body with his foot.

"Hey look! It's the hooded figure!" Ben heard a man say.

"Who?" Ben asked. "Ah.. what...ever." He said trying to catch his breath. "I'm gonna go take a nap."


	10. Revelation

"WHAT!" a terrifying voice cried out. "How is this possible. XJ-9 was supposed to be the only one that stood a chance against my Mechadon, and even then the odds were in MY FAVOR!"

"Master..." Khor began.

"Don't 'Master' me!" the Master shouted down at his herald. "How did you let this happen. That Mechadon should of made pudding out of that... that... who is that." he asked pointing to Ben on one of his monitoring windows.

"The humans call him the 'Hooded Stranger', though he does not seem to be affiliated with the name himself."

"I don't care who he is, I don't want him interfering with the destruction of XJ-9 or my plans to consume this universe again."

"Fret not, Master. Each time a Mechadon is defeated another is generated, more powerful than the last, and improved so that it can not be defeated in the same manner as the previous. All that this hooded figure has done is made his life and the life of XJ-9 more difficult. Worry not, Master, this time they are both doomed, along with their universe."

"Good." The Master replied, a dark smile spreading across his hideous face.

Brad and Jenny were walking out of the mall, a very happy Tuck following close behind, he was able to obtain the last copy of 'Galaxy War 3'. Brad and Jenny were chatting it up and laughing when a crowd of people came rushing by. Jenny stopped one of them and asked:

"What's going on? Where is everybody going?"

"Whoa! You're XJ-9, the robot super hero!" The man answered. Jenny blushed, all she wanted was a little recognition. The man continued, "A killer robot was rampaging through town, and there have been sightings of the 'Hooded Stranger' fighting it in the park." With that the man ran off.

_The Hooded Stranger!_ Jenny though, feeling a little jealous that he was getting so much attention when he was hardly ever seen. Then a though occurred to her. "Oh no!" she said. "Mom is going to kill me for turning of my internal alarm." She activated the rocket boosters inside her pigtails and rocketed off to the park, Brad and Tuck running behind, trying to keep up.

"Yo, Jenny, wait up!" Brad called out. He and Tuck stopped to catch their breath. "You know what, on second though, we'll just meet you there."

_Nora Wakeman stared in pure shock and disbelief. It had been ages since she's seen a Mechadon, the last time she'd seen one was... way back then before her old colleague left her to start his own life after, the incident way back in 1983.

She looked up in the sky and saw her robot daughter flying towards her and the scrap of the Mechadon robot. "XJ-Ny-yun!" she shouted.

"Hi Mom." Jenny replied meekly. "I know you're mad about me turning off my alarm and not hearing an alert, but I have a perfectly good reason..."

"XJ-Ny-yun," Mrs. Wakeman began, "there are more important things to worry about than you turning of your alarm, although I am still upset that you did." Jenny was shocked, no yelling, no chastising. _What was going on_? She asked herself. Then she saw the defeated Mechadon laying on the ground, missing an arm and decapitated. It was then that Brad and Tuck finally arrived, breathless.

"What is that, mom?" Jenny asked her mother.

"That is the remains of a Mechadon robot." Nora Wakeman responded her daughter. Brad had finally regained his breath, Tuck was still trying, so he went over to where Jenny and Mrs. Wakeman were standing. When he reached them he looked down at the robot remains.

"More like where is it from?" Brad said. "Look at those weird symbols."

"It's definitely not human or from the Cluster." Jenny concluded, she was only partly right.

"You are only partly right, XJ-Ny-yun." said Nora Wakeman. "The symbols that adorn this titan and the metal from which it is made are definitely not human. However, it was designed by a human."

"What?!" Jenny exclaimed. "Mom, how do you know that?" Jenny asked her mother, voice full of surprise and shock.

"Because," Nora began, "I designed it. Me and an old friend and colleague, Gary Arnit.


	11. Meet Us At Mesmer's

Jenny was still trying to register what she had just heard. Her mother designed this thing, this killer robot that was attacking the town? That couldn't be right... could it?

"_You _designed this thing?" She questioned her mother in shock. "You designed a robot that goes rampaging through town?!"

"It wasn't initially designed to do that." Nora responded to her robot daughter. "In fact I thought they had all been destroyed, or at least that is what I was led to believe. Unless... hmm..."

"Hmm? Hmm what, mom?" Jenny asked her mother, still in shock that she helped designed this killer robot.

"Nothing dear, just some old business that needs to be taken care of. How much do you know about this 'Hooded Stranger'?" She asked her daughter

"Just that he is called that on account of the gray hoodie that he is always seen wearing." Jenny replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, who ever or _what_ ever he is, he is surprisingly powerful, dismantling this Mechadon the way that he did." she said looking at the mutilated robot that lay on the ground in front of her.

"Okay, mom, if that's all then I'm gonna head over to Mesmer's with Brad." Jenny said to her mother, slowly backing away.

"Oh, but first we have to drop Tuck off at home, he's probably dying to try out his new game."

"Okay, yeah, no prob..."

"XJ-Ny-yun." Nora interrupted. "Be careful and be on the look out. This thing was after you." Nora said, still studying the robotic remains. "Where there is one Mechadon, there are sure to be more coming, each one more powerful than the last." Nora concluded with a tone of severity.

_Ben finally arrived at the cities power station. He had been hijacking into the cities power grid in order to recharge at night. Normally he wouldn't need to recharge until later that night, but that fight with Mechadon took a lot out of him. He was tired, but he needed to get recharged or else his robotic limbs would go out, followed by life support, he did have reserves, but those were harder to recharge and he could always use those in emergency situations. A brawl with a killer robot didn't necessarily classify as an emergency his his book.

_I wonder where that thing came from._ He thought to himself. _Wherever the came from, it wasn't of human origin, although the design did look vaguely familiar._ He had plugged himself in when he passed out and saw a tunnel of strange symbols. He suddenly appeared in familiar place. _Oh no._ he thought. _Not again._

_Jenny and Brad arrived at Mesmer's. They would have been there sooner had Brad not needed to help Tuck hook up his X-Cube 3000.

"Tuck, you know how to hook it up." Brad had said to his little brother.

"I know, Brad. But I have to use the facilities." Tuck answered his big brother. Brad just rolled his eyes. "I'm almost certain that kid has an infection or something." Brad said as he proceeded to hook up the game counsel to the television in their room.

Jenny had gone home to freshen up. She looked at herself in the mirror, she wanted to look nice. Not that she didn't think that she already looked nice, but she wanted to look nicer. She didn't know why she wanted to look nicer, she was only going to Mesmer's with Brad as she had always done, but something inside of her kept telling her that she needed to look nicer than usual. She couldn't quite pinpoint the reason, all she knew was that she needed to look nicer.

When Brad had gone to let her know that he was ready to head out he noticed that she looked different. He couldn't see how she looked different, most guys are like that so don't expect an immediate result ladies. He couldn't quite she how she looked different, but it was a good different, he like this different. He didn't know why he liked this different, he just knew that he liked this different.

Fast-forwarding back to Mesmer's. Jenny and Brad did what they usually did. Brad ordered a root bear float, Jenny had her usual can of oil. They chatted, they laughed, they hung out, yada yada, etc. While they were hanging out Jenny couldn't help but notice a nagging need that just would not go away, the need to impress Brad. Strange feelings kept stirring in the pit of her metallic stomach. She didn't quite understand these feelings, they were different than anything she ever felt when she was around Brad.

All of a sudden a loud crash erupted from the parking lot right outside of Mesmer's.

Ben looked around, he was in the empty, everything was white room.

"Why do I get the feeling that you are not happy to be here?" said a familiar high, scratchy voice. Ben turned around

"Ah, Tate. Why would I not be happy to see you?" Ben asked with sarcasm in his voice.

"I don't understand the question. Would it not be better directed towards you, since you would be the one who possesses the answer to such a question." Tate answered. Ben just rolled his eyes, obviously this guy didn't get out much.

"Why am I here? I though you told me everything already, after all, you did kick me out last time." Ben said.

"You obviously have no idea what you have done!" Tate shouted. This took Ben by surprise. He didn't think that he done anything wrong, all he did today was wake up, eat a hot dog, watch some TV through a store window and sleep. Oh, and he also defeated a rather large, killer robot rampaging through town.

"Nooo." Ben said innocently.

"You've exposed yourself to XJ-9's mother!" Tate yelled. Ben did a double take. XJ-9 has a mother, Ben had assumed that XJ-9 was a machine.

"I thought XJ-9 was a machine. How can she have a mother, is she a human?" Ben asked, very confused at this point.

"No!" replied Tate. "XJ-9 is a robot." A robot. Ben didn't remember meeting any other robots, except the one that he dismantled earlier that day.

_No... it can't be_. He though to himself.

"That killer robot? That was XJ-9's mother?!" Ben asked with surprise in his voice.

"What? No!" Tate said. "Honestly, where do we find these people." He said under his voice. "The woman in the park, that was her mother."

_Sure._ Ben thought.

"The woman in the park? You're gonna gave to be a little more specific Tate." Ben said. "There were a lot of women in the park today. Could you, oh I don't know, clarify?"

"No time." Tate said. "XJ-9 is in trouble, you need to get back down there."

"Wait!" Ben began to say. "It would be a little easier if I knew who XJ-9..." Ben fell through the floor again through a tunnel of symbols and woke up in the power station where he was plugged in. He looked at his power level. 99.9% it read, good enough.

_Now, how do I find XJ-9_ he wondered. Then he heard faint screams coming from somewhere in town. _Easy_. He though. _Just follow the screams._

_Back at Mesmer's Jenny and Brad ran outside the establishment into the parking lot. What they saw was incredible. A large black and orange robot was out in the parking lot smashing cars. People were running all over the place screaming. The Mechadon ignored them, it seemed to have only one thing on it's one track mind.

"Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9."

The robot looked just like the one they saw laying on the ground in the park. The only difference was that this one was slightly larger and possessed more armor than the one before.

"Hey, scrap metal!" Jenny called out to the Mechadon. The Mechadon looked up. It ran a scan of the robot that stood before.

"Identity confirmed: XJ-9 in the vicinity." The Mechadon said in a robotic voice. "Directive: Destroy the one known as XJ-9." This caught Jenny a little off guard.

"Who are you and who do you work for?" Jenny demanded. The Mechadon did not answer and simply headed towards her ready to attack. The Mechadon swung a large, heavy, metal fist at her. Jenny was able to easily dodge the attack, she was easily faster than the slow moving Mechadon. Jenny transformed her hand into a buzz saw. The Mechadon stopped for moment and analyzed what was taking place. The Mechadon mimicked Jenny and turned it's own hand into a large, orange buzz saw. This surprised Jenny, but it didn't stop her for long.

"By the time I'm done with you you're going to be nothing but sheet metal!" she shouted at the Mechadon. She swung her buzz saw hand down at the Mechadon with a smile on her face. She hit the Mechadon square on the top of it's head.

**SNAP**

Jenny's buzz saw broke into a dozen pieces when it made contact. The extra armor that this Mechadon bore made it much more invulnerable than it's predecessor. The large Mechadon swung it's large buzz saw hand at Jenny, again, Jenny was easily able to evade this attack. She quickly transformed her hand into a giant mace and swung at the Mechadon. She nailed it square in the face, sending the Mechadon stumbling back several paces and toppling over.

"Yeah, go Jenny! You sure showed him!" Brad shouted from behind a toppled car laying on it's side. Jenny smiled down at him, but the moment was not to last. The Mechadon stood back up and was headed straight for them. A large blaster shot out of Jenny's wrist and was aimed right at the Mechadon, the Mechadon again copied this action as an even larger blaster shout of it's arm. The Mechadon had it's sights targeted on Jenny.


	12. A Shocking Turn of Events

**It's the moment we've all been waiting for folks. Ben finally meets Brad and Jenny face to face. After chapters of cause and effect between the two parties unaware of the other's existence, the time has finally arrive! Enjoy.**

They had themselves a good old fashioned draw. The Mechadon was about to fire a laser, but luckily Jenny was faster and let it rip before the Mechadon even had a chance. The Mechadon was hit square in the chest and was sent flying backwards a few feet. The Mechadon just laid there, motionless. Jenny waited a few more seconds, nothing. Jenny flew back down by Brad's side.

"Way to go, Jenny!" Brad said, smiling as he did so. Jenny just beamed a smile right back at him.

"I'll have to admit, he was a bit tougher to beat than the others, but I knew that I could do it." She said confidently.

"Of course you could Jenny. You're..." Brad stopped mid-sentence and was staring at something behind Jenny.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Brad?"

"Jenny, look out!" Brad screamed, but it was too late, just as she was about to turn around the Mechadon hit Jenny with it's mace arm. Sending Jenny flying. She lay there dazed for a second. She finally got up to see the Mechadon slowly making it's way towards her. She got back up and looked at her body, the Mechadon had dented her. She ignited her pig-tail rocket boosters, angered.

"You're gonna pay for that, you giant piece of scrap!" She shouted at the Mechadon who was still making it's way towards her. The Mechadon swung it's arm at Jenny, she evaded, and transformed her hand into a giant fist and uppercut the Mechadon, sending it's flying back. The force of the Mechadon hitting the ground caused the car that Brad was hiding behind to topple over on top of his leg.

"Brad!" Jenny shouted out in concern. She flew over to where Brad was. "Are you alright she asked her friend, unaware that the Mechadon was rising up from the ground behind her.

"Yeah." Brad answered. "Nothing serious, I'm just stuck and my leg might be sore in the morning." he told his friend. Brad turned to face Jenny and saw the Mechadon heading towards them with a large blaster pointed right at them.

"Jenny! Look out!" Brad warned his friend. Jenny turned to see the hulking Mechadon towering over them with it's weapon pointed directly at them. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a voice cried out:

"Here's Benjy!" Right when this was said a figure sporting a gray hoodie, black cargoes, and black and purple Nike's jumped over them and nailed the Mechadon square between the eyes with his fist. This sent the Mechadon toppling backwards. When it hit the ground it fired the blaster upward to the sky instead of at Brad and Jenny.

Somewhere in Space:

A satellite is orbiting earth suddenly to be blown to bits by a strange laser of unknown origin.

Back on Earth:

"The Hooded Stranger!" Brad shouted.

"Who?" Ben asked turning around to see the origin of the voice. "Who's the Hooded Stranger?" Ben asked confused as to why the guy in front of him would address him such a manner.

"You." Brad answered. "You are the Hooded Stranger, the same guy who rescued the baby from the giant robot the other day, right.?"

"Oh... that? Why would you call me the Hooded Stranger?" Ben asked, then realizing that he was wearing a hoodie. "Oh...right" Ben said. THUD THUD THUD The thundering footsteps of the Mechadon walking up behind them rang out. Jenny lifted the car up off of Brad.

"Brad, run for cover." Jenny ordered her friend.

"You don't need to tell me twice." Brad quickly agreed and ran for more suitable cover. The behemoth Mechadon stopped in front of Jenny and Ben, towering over them.

"You seem... different." Ben said. "Have you been working out?" Ben asked in a joking tone. The Mechadon remained silent. "No? Maybe you got a new paint job?" Ben asked in a sarcastic tone. The Mechadon transformed it's fist into a giant mace, one of the few weapons that it was able to copy from Jenny, and swung down at the two of them. Brad jumped to his left as Jenny flew upwards, both successfully dodging the on coming attack.

"I'm doing just fine on my own, 'Hooded Stranger'!" Jenny shouted down to Ben.

"Yeah, I can tell." Ben replied looking at her dented body. Jenny transformed her hands into a drill and tunneled underground.

"Gee... thanks for helping out." Ben said, thinking she had ditched him. Suddenly he heard rumbling underground and saw as a flash of blue and white shot out of the ground and hit the Mechadon right in the middle of the back, sending it flying forward. Ben, caught of guard by this move had to move quickly. He flipped over onto his hands, folded his body and caught the Mechadon on his feet. He then straightened his body out, sending the Mechadon flying behind him.

"I think we might have managed to scratch him." Ben joked. Jenny just looked at him and shook her head. The Mechadon got up and started to head towards them. Jenny flew towards the Mechadon with a giant fist, planning to hit the Mechadon, but had to move out of the way instead when the Mechadon swung a fist her. Ben, who had been distracted with what Jenny had been doing took the force of the blow himself. Being hit directly in the chest he was sent flying backwards. He got up and shook of his dizziness and spotted an expensive looking red sports car.

Jenny had been fighting the Mechadon was surprised when a blur of red came and hit the Mechadon in the chest, sending it flying backwards.

"Hey, watch it!" she yelled back at Ben who had almost hit her with the car as well. "We're on the same team!" she added. "I think." She said to herself.

Don Prima, who had been watching the scene unfold along with the rest of the people who had been too scared to come out, swung the doors open and cried out in agony:

"My beautiful car!"

"Sorry, pretty boy. It was the first thing I saw." Ben said non-apologetically while shrugging his shoulders. The Mechadon got up again and started towards him and Jenny. "Ahh... this is starting to get old." Ben said. He was looking for another rich boy car when he caught site of the fuse box on one of the street lights.

"Yo... uh... Robot Girl!" he shouted.

"Kind buys right now, hoodie boy.

"Can you produce a sword out of your array of weapons?" Ben asked her as he got closer and kicked the Mechadon backwards as he jumped forward.

"Yeah." Jenny replied. "But I doubt that it will do much good. My buzz saw broke on that things head." she added."

"That's fine." Ben said. "We just need to get him to copy it."

"I thought the idea was to not let him copy any weapons." Jenny said confused as to what the genius of this plan was.

"Just trust me." Ben said. Jenny was reluctant to do anything that Ben asked, after all, he was the one hogging all the attention. But then the Mechadon got back up and Jenny complied.

"Okay." She submitted. Jenny turned her arm into a long sword. The Mechadon analyzed what Jenny was doing and copied her the weapon, producing a long sword out of it's own arm.

"Great!" Ben exclaimed. "Now lets lead that hunk of junk over to that street lamp." Ben said as he started to head over to the light post. Jenny followed still not seeing the plan here. "Okay," Ben began, " on my signal, move out of the way as fast as you can." Ben ordered. "Uh, okay?" Jenny said, it seemed kind of obvious to move out of the way of a giant robot. The Mechadon started towards the two of them. Jenny was about to move out of the way and strike but stopped when Ben said:

"Wait for it... wait for it... wait for it..." The Mechadon was getting closer, closer than Jenny would have liked. "NOW!" He shouted and the two of them moved out of the way just as the Mechadon lunged at them with it's long blade arm. Instead of slicing through the metal of Jenny and Ben, the Mechadon sliced through the metal and wires of the fuse box on the light post.

Sparks began to fly all over the place as the Mechadon was being electrocuted. After about 20 to 30 seconds the whole block went out and the Mechadon fell to the ground, completely fried.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, is all she wrote." Ben said after the Mechadon fell to the ground. Brad ran out to the two of them.

"Jenny!" He shouted. "You guys did it! Man that was awesome!" Jenny flew down next to Brad and hugged her best friend. All the people who were watching from inside of Mesmer's came out and started to chant:

"HOODED STRANGER! HOODED STRANGER! HOODED STRANGER!"

Jenny rolled her eyes and thought to her self:

_Of course he gets all the credit..._

Her though was interrupted by Ben, saying: "Hold up you guys. That thing wouldn't be fried right now if it hadn't been for the robot girl over there. Sure I like the praise and all, but come on, let's give credit where it's due." The crowd looked at Jenny for a second then began to chant:

"JENNY! JENNY! JENNY! JENNY!"

"Yes, even if she is just a big freak." said a voice in the crowd. The crowd cleared way for the speaker, it was Brit and Tiff. "Yeah, she might be a hero, but we can't ignore facts, people, that girl is still just a freak." The last part seemed to go in slow motion as Ben listened to the word "Freak". He had been called a freak by lot's of people, his supposed friends, his teachers, his peers, his old girlfriend. Heck, his own sister called him a freak once, she of course apologized and the made up later, but he couldn't stand by and let this robot girl get ridiculed for being different when she had just saved all of these people. Then something happened that surprised Ben. "Yo, we don't care if she is a freak, if it hadn't bee for her, we probably wouldn't be a live right now!" one man said from the crowd. Brit and Tiff just stood there, stunned and maybe even a little embarrassed. They might be queens in high school, but in public they were just another pair of jerky faces. The crowd dispersed, exhausted from the adrenaline rush they had just experienced, who wouldn't be after being nearly killed by a crazed robot.

_Maybe..._ he thought, _people were not as judgmental as he had previously made them out to be...say for a few anyways. _He corrected himself looking at the two girls, Brit and Tiff, walking away.

He turned around to look at Brad and Jenny. They were both looking at him. He was still wearing his hoodie and cargo pants. Brad was looking at him with one question on his mind:

"So, what's with the hood?"

Ben looked at the gray hoodie he was wearing. He didn't know if he wanted to show them, after all so many people had judged him harshly before. He looked at the two standing before him. He looked at Jenny, a robot living in a human world. _Here goes_. He thought to himself. He reached up and took hold of the hood of his hoodie... and put it down.

"Whoa..." Brad said

"Y-Y-Y-Your a human and a robot." Jenny stated surprised. His face was not necessarily ugly, just different. A teenage boy of about 17 years of age stood before them. His face looked mostly normal except for the fact that his right eye was replaced by a red, robotic optical and the right side of his head, starting where his ear should have been extending down his neck and around it and over his entire lower jaw stopping at his chin, was metal. They were both looking at him. Brad was the first to speak:

"Dude... you're a cyborg. That is so..."

"Freaky?" Ben said. "Yeah I know.."

"Awesome!" Brad said, raising his arms in the air.

"What?" Ben asked shocked at the word that this guy just used to describe him. A lot of words have been used to describe him, but 'awesome' was never one of them, except by Mike. Ben suddenly grew sad thinking of his lost friend.

"Dude, so what kind of powers do you have. Can you shoot lasers, can you fly, can you see through walls with your robot eye?" Ben was being overwhelmed by questions from the new guy he just met. "Uhh... mainly I just have super strength, super agility, and super speed. The doctor who fixed me up after my... accident... never got a chance to instal rocket boosters."

"So, what's your name, your real name?" Jenny asked, giving Ben a break from all of Brad's questions. Ben took the break gratefully, talking about him being a cyborg was never a comfortable subject for Ben.

"My name is Ben." Ben said.

"Well, my name is Jenny." Jenny said smiling.

"And my name is Brad." Brad said pointing to himself with his thumb and smiling.

"Thanks for you did back there with the crowd, that was really..." Jenny couldn't finish her statement because a voice called out.

"XJ-Ny-yun!"

"Mom!" Jenny said surprised by the interruption. Something clicked in Ben's head.

"Wait a minute!" he said loudly. "XJ-9?! Mom?! Oh no..." Ben said, and just as he said that he fell to the ground going through an all to familiar tunnel of symbols.


	13. Family Business

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The Master cried out as he watched his precious Mechadon go down in defeat, again. He turned to Khor, casting a deadly glare with his dark, sunken eyes. Khor cowered in fear in the presence of his master.

"Master..." Khor began. "Let me make it up to you! I guarantee, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the next one will ensure their demise. Just bear with me, I beg of you Master!" Khor pleaded to his master.

"Enough!" Shouted the Master. "I will give you one last chance." the Master said scornfully. Khor nodded his head gratefully, smiling in relief as he did so. "I promise you master, the next one will not let you down."

"No!" The Master shouted down at his Herald. "You will go and take care of those two nuisances yourself!" The Master said as he leaned down and put his face in that face of his Herald. "And I warn you Khor, if you fail me a third time, you will face your doom as you are consumed with the rest of those filthy specks as I devour their dimension!" The Master shouted as a warning his servant, with evil and sincerity in his voice. "Now go! Leave my sights, and don't return until your task is completed!" The Master said as he turned away from his servant.

"Yes, Master." Khor said. "As you command."

_Ben looked around as he suddenly appeared in the same empty white room. Everything looked exactly as it did in his previous visits.

"You should probably consider getting a home decorator in here, sourpuss." Ben said to himself as he stood up and looked around.

"Duly noted." a voice responded, scaring the crap out of Ben. Ben turned around and looked at Tate.

"Bro! You have seriously gotta stop doing that!" Ben said as he realized that it was just Tate. "So, what is it this time, sourpuss?" Ben asked, expecting to be chewed out, since it was the only reason so far that he has been brought to this bizarre white room. Just as Ben had suspected, Tate began to yell at him:

"What have you done!?" Tate bellowed, though it's hard to take him seriously with his voice. Ben just stared, a confused expression on his face, and shrugged. "You did exactly what I told you not to do! You exposed yourself to XJ-9!" Tate shouted. Ben, fed up with not understanding a lot of what was going on replied:

"What's the big deal?! You told me to protect XJ-9, and that's exactly what I did! Sure, I exposed my self, sure I let her know that I existed, but I don't see the problem in that. XJ-9 is safe, I did my job. So, pray do tell, what exactly did I do wrong?"

"There are things bigger than you happening all around you. They aren't noticeable now, but they are getting closer and closer and before you know it they will be upon you!" Tate said.

"I would hardly call crazed killer robots who can destroy a city block 'unnoticeable'." Ben replied.

"Those _Mechadons_ are only the tip of the iceberg, and you're lucky he sent them. I had a hunch that he would, which is why I enlisted you to protect XJ-9. He views her as a threat and sent them to destroy her!"

"Wait a minute who is _he_?" Ben asked, realizing that the plot was indeed beginning to thicken. Tate did not answer instead he continued to rant.

"And then you go and screw it all up by coming into contact with XJ-9!" Ben was growing sick of all the mysteries, not a single question he asked Tate had been answered and he was growing impatient.

"Why," he began, enunciating and extending the word, making sure he had Tate's attention. When he was sure he did, he continued. "Why is it so bad that I made contact with XJ-9? It's not like it's the end of the world... is it?" he asked. Tate glared at him.

"That's exactly what it is, it'll be the end of all worlds if you continue to go about things the way you are. You and XJ-9 are connected. Your pasts, your origins are intertwined. You share the same origins, you are half of what she is and half of what she wants to be and she is everything you want to be. If you continue contact with her you will get in her way. Distract her and she cannot fight this enemy that threatens her world and every world, every universe, if she is to fail." Tate ended with a tone of severity.

Ben just stared at him, he hadn't understood a word of what Tate had just said to him, but he did understand one thing. He had to do what Tate said, he had to disappear and terminate communications with XJ-9, or Jenny as she called herself, he didn't quite understand why, because what Tate had said to him was a bit beyond him, but he could tell by the way that Tate had said it that it was important that he did so.

"Okay," Ben said. "I'll do what you say." In a similar fashion as before, Ben seemed to fall through the floor, through a tunnel of symbols that he always saw on the way in, and back to his body.

_Brad, Jenny and Mrs. Wakeman had loaded Ben up into Mrs. Wakeman's car. Brad and Jenny watched Ben as he did what appeared to be sleeping. When they arrived back at Jenny's house they laid him out on the couch in the living room. Mrs. Wakeman took a scan of him and said:

"I'll be in my lab if you need me, there is something familiar about these designs." and with that she went downstairs into her lab. Brad and Jenny continued to stare at their new friend as he lay there motionless.

"Do you think he died?" Brad asked Jenny

"Don't be silly, Brad, of course he's not dead... do you think?" Jenny replied.

"Only one way to find out." Brad said. Brad reached down and put his hands on Ben's neck to check his pulse, just as he did this Ben woke up and saw Brad in close proximity with his hands on his neck.

"Ahh!" Ben said in suprise.

"Ahhhh!" Brad said in surprised at Ben's sudden regaining of consciousness.

"What are you doing?!" Ben asked quickly

"I was checking your pulse, you know, to see if you were dead." Brad defended

"How are you going to check the pulse on someone who wasn't even here?" Ben asked confused. Brad, even more confused, replied:

"What do you mean? You passed out at Mesmer's and we brought you back to Jenny's place." Brad informed him. This confused Ben, he could have sworn that he was just in the strange white room with Tate, but Brad was saying that he was back here on earth, passed out? When he recovered he registered what Brad had said, he was XJ-9's... Jenny's.. house. Remembering what Tate had told him he got up.

"I have to go." Ben said as he got up and headed for the front door of the house.

"No, you don't _have _to leave." Jenny said as Ben was walking away.

"No, you don't understand..._heck, I don't even understand completely_... but I do have to go." He said in reply. Ben opened the door and saw that it was now raining, he was about to leave when all of a sudden:

"How's Gary?" a voice asked, Ben turned around to see a familiar woman, the woman in the park, XJ-9's mother. "I recognize the design of your robotic body, he must have had help, good help, the design was his but Gary never could put a robot together," Mrs. Wakeman began again chuckling. "I tried calling him, but the phone number I had on file for him was out of service, every phone number I had for him was out of service."

Ben turned back around, trying to hold back tears. Gary? Who knew who she was talking about. Gary was his father. "Da..." He began, trying not to break down. "Gary is... Gary is dead." He said finally chocking on tears. "Everyone is dead..." He said lastly before closing the door and disappearing into the night rain.

"Dead..." Nora Wakeman mouthed the word in shock. She thought about the last thing that Ben had said, "_Everyone is dead?_" What had he meant by it. As far as she knew everyone that she used to work with was alive, except for a few who had actually died, but she knew about them. What had he mean when he said that everyone is dead. She thought about he boy's reaction, the boy was nearly crying.

_He must have known Gary, rather personally too.._ she thought to her self. _But how...unless... no, it couldn't be, could it. It's very possible._ She thought.

"Mom? Are you okay?" Jenny asked her mother. She had noticed that her mother was bothered by something, but she didn't know what.

"I"m fine." she reassured her daughter. "Just some unresolved _family _business."


	14. Family Secrets

Ben sat alone in the rain on top of the Tremorton water tower. He watches as people ran to get out of the rain, he watched as a father carried his five year old daughter so that the puddles forming on the ground would not splash on her. He looked around and his fell upon a young couple running around in the rain, they were laughing and having fun playing in the rain. He smiled, he and his old girlfriend, Natasha, used to do the same thing, before the accident. He leaned his head back and smiled at the old memories.

"I don't know what you're so happy about." A deep male voice said. Ben turned around in surprise and saw an intimidating creature there. He looked at the pale gray skin, the green hair that covered it's head, and large teeth that resembled tusks. Most of all he noticed the large double bladed ax that the creature wielded. "You don't have much to smile about." The creature sneered. "Soon, you won't have anything to smile about at all." the creature said before raising his ax and shooting a bright green blast of energy from it.

The blast was seen from down below by many people passing by.

"What was that." one asked

"Lightning?" another guessed.

"But so close to the ground?" a woman questioned. The people began to debate what it was, unaware of what was actually going on.

The blast was powerful, powerful enough to send Ben to the outskirts of Tremorton. Ben just laid there in a daze. The creature flew over him on a hover board.

"Who are you?" Ben asked still a little dizzy.

"I am Khor, Herald of _Xza_, Consumer of Worlds!" Khor answered. "I have been sent here to destroy you and the one known as XJ-9, halfling." Khor said. "The Mechadon's failed, so now the duty falls on me."

"Mechadon? You mean those killer robots that were after XJ-9?" Ben asked, now fully recovered from his dizziness.

" I must say, I am impressed. Not many are able to fell a Mechadon, which is why both you and XJ-9 must perish before my master can consume this dimension." An image flashed in his head. Back at home, in his own dimension. The red sky, the dark clouds, the giant black hole in the sky. Everything began to make sense. The destruction of his world, the death of his friends and family, he was alone now, and it was because of …

"You?! That was you?!" He asked in shock. Ben's blood began to boil, he picked up a large bolder and threw it as hard as he could at Khor. The bolder made impact and knocked Khor clean off of his hover board. Khor got up off the ground with contempt in his eyes.

"Nobody strikes Khor without reaping the consequences!" Khor shouted. He pressed a button on his ax and suddenly his hover board began to eject medium sized robots. Their bodies were long, wide at the head and thinned out at the tail. Each one had dozens of bug like legs that carried them at a good speed. They piled onto Ben, making him take several steps back from the force of the impact. Khor laughed as Ben was being attacked by these bug bots.

"You have impeded in our destruction of XJ-9 and the demise of this dimension for far too long, you have hindered his plans for long enough, it all ends now." Khor said. Ben continued to struggle with the little drones as the continued their assault. He smashed the ground sending out a shock-wave that sent most of them flying in all directions off of him. The few that remained on him Ben took and ripped them in half and smashed them with is fists. Those that had been knocked off got back up quickly and made their way back towards Ben, those that had been destroyed made copies of themselves from the broken parts all over the ground and ran back towards Ben.

Ben picked up a large rock and smashed a group of them as another grouped jumped on him from behind. Then from all directions they began to jump on him. Ben ran into the side of a large hill near the area, crushing most of the bugs that were on him, the rest he flung off of him and stepped on, crushing them to bits. Like previously the bugs constructed new bugs from their parts and continued to attack Ben.

Ben continued to smash them and tear them apart until finally there were so many that they completely overwhelmed him. The covered his body and began to liquify, Ben was about to smash the ground again in a hulk like fashion when the liquified bugs began to morph around his body and harden. As they were covering his face he saw the face of Khor. Khor laughed a menacing laugh and said:

"Now say good-bye to XJ-9 and this disgusting dimension!" Ben's entire body was completely covered by the liquified bugs. They hardened encasing Ben in a mold of alien metal, freezing his body in stasis.

"Now, to destroy XJ-9 then this entire universe." Khor said to himself smiling. He flew off on his hover board leaving Ben in a metal cocoon with his arms raised ready to attack, but that was now impossible.

_Nora Wakeman had gone back down to her lab to check some old files. These were files that she had not looked at in nearly 30 years. She was looking at old projects that she and her colleagues were working on before they all split up.

"Ah, here it is!" she exclaimed to herself.

"Her what is, mom?" Jenny asked. Mrs. Wakeman turned around surprised.

"Oh, XJ-Ny-yun, you startled me." Mrs. Wakeman said to her daughter. Her daughter continued to look at her with a questioning stare, signaling that her question was still open for an answer. Mrs. Wakeman sighed.

"These are designs for and inter-dimensional Portal Projector." she said to her daughter. "They were designed by and old colleague and friend, Gary Arnit." She said. Jenny looked at her mother.

"What do these designs have to do with anything?" Jenny asked her mother. "Aren't other dimensions just a theory?" she queried her mother.

"I used to think so, but now I'm not so sure." Nora Wakeman said to her daughter. "Jenny, you are aware that I have a sister, Wisteria." Mrs. Wakeman stated. Of course Jenny knew who she was, she and her cousin had staged a fight to get her mother and her aunt to cooperate and get along, though it did only last for a short amount of time.

"Yes." Jenny said, not understanding where this was leading.

"Well, I have another sister, one whom I believed to be dead for a long, long time." Nora Wakeman said. Jenny stepped back, obviously surprised by this tidbit of information coming from her mother.

"32 years ago," her mother continued, "I received a new partner at the lab that I used to work for. We were trying to make a breakthrough in the theory that the existence of other dimensions was true. My new partner was a Quantum Physicist. He was more than happy to be my new partner because he loved robots, only he didn't know a thing about them. My partner's name was Gary Arnit. Gary became a very good friend to me and my sisters, but none of us got as close to him as my other sister, Bernadette. Bernadette and Gary started to date and were eventually married. About 10 years later Gary woke up in a cold sweat, he had just thought of something revolutionary, a way to travel between dimensions. He presented these plans to the board and they were approved and he received funding to begin construction on the device. The device was a success, although it only allowed access to two different dimensions. Both of them appearing to be empty. He became obsessed with it, he worked day and night trying to open up different dimensions. Him not being a technology whiz needed my help with this. I was wary, for there was already a mishap with this thing that, well..." she stopped, she was about to say something but decided against it.

"Well, he eventually peaked my interest and I began to work with im to broaden the scope of the device. One night we were working late in the lab and Gary's wife, my sister, came to visit her husband and me in the lab. I excused my self to relieve myself in the facilities. My sister had come to drag us away from the project because she thought that we had worked enough on it and she wanted to spend some time with her husband. She was right in doing so of course, but if only she had been sooner. Gary said he would go home, but he wanted to make one little tweak with the device. When he was done he began to walk towards the exit with his wife. Then, all of a sudden, the device began to malfunction. It had powered up somehow and it was going berserk, Gary went over to check on the machine and my sister grabbed his arm trying to stop him, when all of a sudden the lab erupted in a flash of bluish-white light. I saw everything through the window of the lab. When the light died down and my eyes re-adjusted my sister and Gary were both gone."

Jenny listened with complete and total interest as her mother related the story. She had another aunt? An Uncle even? This was all new to her and she was very interested, but she didn't understand one thing.

"What does this have to do with anything?" Jenny asked her mother. Nora Wakeman looked at her daughter.

"When I looked at the scans I took of that boy that you brought in here today, the designs looked familiar, too familiar. I realized that the belonged to Gary when I realized that they were the original plans for _you_, XJ-Ny-yun." Mrs. Wakeman told her daughter. Jenny was shocked.

"My plans?! But how?!" she asked her mother stunned.

"Gary Arnit loved robots." Mrs. Wakeman repeated. "He was coming up with designs and plans all the time. Most of them never made sense or worked, he was not all that good with robotics. But, he was the one who came up with the original design for you. When the device malfunctioned it caused a power-surge, deleting many of the files on the computer, one of which were the designs for you. I created the XJ line trying to reconstitute the designs until I finally did with you." Jenny was in complete shock at this point.

"So... you're saying that me and Ben are like the same, we're like family?" Jenny questioned her mother.

"Oh no, you're much more than _like_ family. I believe that you are family. Jenny, I believe that Ben is Gary Arnit's son, I believe that that boy is your cousin. And if this is true and Gary and Bernadette did go to a different dimension and have a child and if what he says is true, _everyone is dead_, than I fear that something terrible may have happened and it is coming our way."

"Wow..." Jenny and Mrs. Wakeman both nearly jumped out of their skins.

"BRADLEY CARBUNKLE!" Mrs. Wakeman shouted. "How long have you been standing there?!" She asked the red haired boy.

"Pretty much the entire time. That was some pretty deep stuff, Doc." Brad replied to the small, white haired woman.

"Brad!" Jenny said. "You should know better than to sneak up on people like that!"

"Sorry!" Brad said. "Your mom was in the middle of an important speech and I didn't want to interrupt." Brad defended.

"You could have at least tapped me on the shoulder to let me know or something!" Jenny said.

"I did, but you were so entranced with what Mrs. Wakeman was saying that you didn't notice me." Brad said to her.

Jenny sighed. "It's okay, just don't do it again, or else." she threatened. Brad smiled at her. "Don't worry , I won't." he replied. "So, that cyborg dude is your cousin?" Brad questioned.

"Yes, he is." Mrs. Wakeman said. "And if what I suspect is true, an enemy far more powerful than anything you have faced threatens our entire universe. So we much find this young Mr. Ben and find out what he knows."


End file.
